PORT OF SPAIN — One man has died and other lives are at risk because there is no drill to perform brain surgeries at the Port of Spain General Hospital.
Rahil Hosein, 55, of Tobago, a former foreman at the Ministry of Works, died on October 6 – seven days after being hospitalised waiting for brain surgery, which never happened because there was no drill.
A senior source at the hospital said the hospital has been without a drill for the past four months, as the drill that was there previously was old and unserviceable.
The source said scores of cases were being cancelled and patients in critical care were in danger, as the hospital remained without a drill.
All patients are being informed that there is no drill and they must go home. Only critical patients are being kept.
According to the source, chief executive officer Judith Balliram-Ramoutar enquired about the drill and was given the assurance that a new one would be bought only after the matter was raised on Ian Alleyne’s Crime Watch show on TV6 last week.
Alleyne told the Express yesterday that at least three families had complained to him about the absence of a drill at the hospital, including the family of a woman in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit.
While patients are suffering as a result of this, a source said special provisions were made to treat a relative of a former member of parliament who had a brain tumour and was in need of surgery.
Sources said a drill was transported to the Port of Spain hospital from the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, some three weeks ago for the surgery, and it was transported back.
Since then, however, that drill has become unworkable – rendering the hospitals at Port of Spain and Mt Hope without drills.
It is unknown if other people have died as a result of the inability to conduct life-saving brain surgery.
One death that is certain is that of Hosein. (Express)
